Northridge offensive coordinator, MA alum returning home to coach Longhorns

Despite rumors to the contrary, Marengo Academy will be open for the 2018-2019 academic year. Moreover, the Longhorn football team will take to the field for its Aug. 17 season opener against Patrician Academy. Both of those feats will be accomplished under new leadership.

Marengo Academy officially hired Linden native David Akins as its new football coach and headmaster Monday. Akins returns to his alma mater after having graduated from MA in 1977.

“Thirty-five years in public education, I was at a point in time when I was looking for an opportunity to retire and go into private school and continue to coach,” Akins said. “I wasn’t looking for this job. I had a very good job. I also coach golf and had a really good golf team coming back. I had five out of my top seven kids coming back. When the opportunity presented itself to go back home and coach at my alma mater, it was pretty much a no-brainer. It was a new challenge.”

Akins has spent the bulk of his career in Tuscaloosa. He served as the offensive coordinator at Central-Tuscaloosa from 1990 until 2003, helping the team to a Class 6A state championship in 1995. When the school system expanded, Akins moved to Northridge where he served as athletic director until 2016 and offensive coordinator until this week.

“I told them (Monday), one of the first things that we talked about, was being able to accept the challenge and understanding the definition of work and what we are going to have to do,” Akins said of a conversation with his players in which he addressed the challenge of the timetable that has the Longhorns kicking off just 17 days after welcoming a new head coach. “We open up against a state championship team in Patrician. We’re going to challenge them every single day and see how they respond. They’re going to have to learn a new offense, a new defense, new special teams terminology and everything to go with it.”

The introduction played well for Akins, who said his players and coaches seem to be receptive and even excited about the new schematic direction the team will take.

“They caught onto things very quickly today with the first application of it,” Akins said of his players before turning his attention to the four assistant coaches already in place. “They bought into it pretty quick. They seemed to like what we’re going to try to do. If they like it and they’re positive, then they’re going to be able to sell it to the kids.”

According to Akins, the Longhorns will be multiple on offense with a run-heavy attack in an effort to shorten the game and mitigate the challenges of having few players. Defensively, the team will base out of an odd-man front that will offer various looks.

In addition to being the new head coach, Akins is excited about the challenge of being the headmaster and working with teachers, students and parents in a new capacity. Perhaps most importantly, the move will put him back in his hometown and near his parents.

“They’re excited. My dad is older. It’s going to give him the opportunity to watch his son coach. He was at the point that he couldn’t travel very well to watch me coach. Being able to be right there with him will be great for both me and him. That means a lot to me too,” Akins said.